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The World Council of Churches recently sponsored a debate on the situation of Christians in the Middle East that went unnoticed by most, but which provided another huge red flag in regards to the direction the Church is going as it relates to Israel and the Jews.

Meeting in Volos, Greece, a collection of 30 theologians, social scientists, politicians and church representatives labored for five days to decisively identify the reason for shrinking Christian communities across the Middle East.

They could have saved their time and their money for other things like, you know, feeding the poor, because everyone already knew what the conclusion was going to be. Israel, and specifically Zionism, is making life untenable for Christians in the region, announced the group in its closing statement.

"…conflict situations such as Palestine...have seen significant drops in the Christian populations because of Israeli occupation," said the World Council of Churches, ignoring the myriad other reasons why Christians no longer feel comfortable or safe in a society where Hamas can win a landslide electoral victory.

In place like Egypt, where Christians are increasingly being targeted for their faith in the wake of "democratic" revolutions, the council attributed the shrinking Christian demographic to "economic and immigration realities."

This was to be expected from the World Council of Churches, a Geneva-based organization that represents 347 Protestant churches and denominations, and counts among its constituents more than 500 million Christians world-wide. In a 2007 conference in Jordan that also focused on dwindling Christian communities in the Middle East, the group called for a political crusade to end the Jews' "occupation" of their biblical lands.

When it comes to the Christian situation in the Middle East, Islam is just not a problem. It's all those pesky Jews.

The Church in general has a long history of dedicating resources to harassing the Jews and painting them as the "enemies of Christ(rians)," which the Bible specifically warns against.

Many thought we had moved beyond all that, that the horrors of the Holocaust had finally woken the Church to how wrong it had been. In fact, those Christians involved today in this new brand of Israel-bashing will most loudly protest the label of anti-Semitism. But, as the saying goes, "methinks they do protest too loudly."

What the World Council of Churches and others like it are doing is rebranding that most anti-Semitic of doctrines - Replacement Theology.

Instead of calling for their heads, this new brand of Replacement Theology sheds crocodile tears for the Jews as mistreated lost souls who once tasted God's goodness, but have since been replaced as His "chosen" because of their rejection of Jesus.

They do not hate the Jews (at least not openly), but they believe the biblical promises made to national Israel have expired. And that is where the State of Israel comes in. If God's promises to national Israel are no longer valid, then modern Israel has nothing to do with biblical prophecy or God's plan of global redemption.

And, if God's big picture plans don't include the reborn Jewish state, then these Christians feel freer to pursue their unbiblical humanist agenda - seeking what they call "social justice" for Palestinian Christians.

But Jesus never taught his followers to fight for "social justice" by seeking political sovereignty. He taught that His followers would be persecuted and should endure that situation with humility and meekness in order to reach their oppressors, real or perceived, with His message of love.

Ultimately, the aim of groups like the World Council of Churches is not biblical, it's not even about genuine social justice. Whether they know it or not, whether they accept it or not, their agenda is about advancing the cause of Islam and reversing what God is doing in this land.

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